Chrysler: Viper lures suitors

Who might want to buy the Dodge Viper sports car business? Isn't the Viper an automotive dinosaur--a gas-guzzling, 600-hp relic from the era when Bob Lutz ruled the roost at Chrysler?

CEO Bob Nardelli said last week that Chrysler LLC has heard from several potential suitors, but he's not naming names. Chrysler is listening to them as part of a strategic review.

The Viper factory in Detroit employs 110. U.S. sales of the Viper peaked at 2,103 in 2003, the only year the car topped 2,000. In 2006, Dodge sold 1,455 Vipers in the United States. In 2007, no Viper was built.

The Viper business might appeal to some investors, in part because "it's not a billion-dollar-type of asset," said Dave Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"A lot of people can afford it--Chinese companies, Indian companies, Middle Eastern companies--somebody who has a lot of money that wants to create a halo for themselves," Cole said.

Ford Motor Co. just sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Indian automaker Tata Motors, and General Motors has put Hummer on the block.

The Viper business also might be attractive to a wealthy investor from Russia. A young Russian tycoon named Nikolai Smolenski bought the British sports car maker TVR in 2004. But Smolenski closed the factory and has yet to resume production.

That's not the kind of outcome Chrysler says it wants.

Nardelli said the Viper is a crucial part of Chrysler's history, and the company will act "keeping in mind the best interests" of the Viper's many supporters — including dealers, suppliers and "a worldwide group of loyal Viper owners and enthusiasts."

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